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News
01 Aug 2003
SRB Collins Royal Hugo (a.k.a ‘The King), a Holstein Friesian member of Livestock Improvement’s Premier Sires team, has just set a world record for the youngest bull (7 years) to produce more than 1 million inseminations.
This achievement puts him into an elite category as one of the leading Holstein Friesian sires, ever, in the world and will see him inducted to Livestock Improvement’s Hall of Fame.
Researching Hugo’s maternal background means going back 20 years to August 1982 with the birth of Maniapoto AB Mustang bred by the Murphy family of Otorohanga.
An Athol Vic Fernando son from one of the great matriarchs of the NZ Holstein-Friesian breed, Maniapoto AB Augusta, Mustang was progeny tested by Livestock Improvement in 1983 and went on to perform a respectable lifetime tally of 345,000 inseminations.
Importantly, one of these inseminations resulted in the birth in 1989 of Hugo’s maternal grandam. It is worth noting that she is still alive and calved in the current season at the magnificent age of 13!
As a 2yo she was mated to SR Nicholas Storm bred by Murray & Margaret Nicholas of Hawera and sampled by Livestock Improvement in the 1986 Sire Proving Scheme.
With a pedigree containing some of the most well known prefixes of the era (such as Ashton, Windermere, Welburn, Shamrock and Athol), Storm is an inaugural member of Livestock Improvement’s Hall of Fame and managed an impressive lifetime total of over half a million inseminations.
The mating of Hugo’s maternal grandam to Storm produced a heifer calf in 1992 which was to become Hugo’s dam.
Hugo’s paternal ancestry had its origins in two Canadian bulls used by Livestock Improvement in the 1980s. Dalesend Cascade and Puget Sound Sheik generated two sires which would become two of the most influential Holstein Friesian sires in New Zealand - Brightwater DC Carl bred by Mr C Gardiner of Nelson and Pajak Sheik Atlas bred by Jack & Pauline Kruithof from Northland.
Both performed admirably with Carl achieving more than 410,000 inseminations while Atlas exceeded the half million mark by accounting for 525,000 inseminations. They feature in Livestock Improvement’s Hall of Fame and both appear in Hugo’s paternal ancestry.
Carl, in 1986, sired Hugo’s paternal grandam which was subsequently mated to Atlas in 1988 to generate a bull calf purchased by Livestock Improvement for the 1990 Sire Proving Scheme. This calf went on to become Barton’s Bickford, Hugo’s sire.
Bickford’s rise was achieved in tandem with his two high profile paternal half brothers and foundation members of the Hall of Fame. SRD Dawson’s Belvedere bred by the Dawson family of Horsham Downs and Kingsmill PA Walesa bred by the late KK Moore of Bulls were, of course, the first Livestock Improvement owned bulls to surpass the 1 million insemination barrier – but at nine years of age.
Bickford’s own utilisation was significantly curtailed by his post purchase identification as a carrier of the genetic defect BLAD. Almost a decade on, it is easy to take for granted Livestock Improvement’s development of DataMate technology to successfully manage such defects and allow fuller utilisation of top ranking bulls.
Hugo’s dam was mated in 1994 during her first lactation to the newly graduated Bickford and this mating generated a bull calf (born on 17 August 1995) which would become SRD Collins Royal Hugo aka The King. The purchase of the well-grown Hugo from his breeders, Neil and Sandra Collins of Waitara in Taranaki, New Zealand, was completed on 16 November 1995.
Hugo was the first and only bull bred by Neil and Sandra to have been acquired by Livestock Improvement for progeny testing.
The bull was used in the 1996 Sire Proving Scheme, his first daughters being born in 1997 and subsequently calving in 1999.
On 18 October 1999 SRD Collins Royal Hugo was the only Holstein-Friesian Forward Pack addition to the Premier Sires team of that year. In his first season, Hugo recorded 217,000 inseminations.
In 2000 he amassed over 350,000 inseminations, easily the most by any Premier Sire of that year and close to the all time Premier Sires record set by Crockett’s Trevor in 1991 (progeny tested by Livestock Improvement in 1987) to progress his lifetime total to 568,000.
At 5 years of age, Hugo had re-written the history books by becoming the youngest bull in the world to exceed 500,000 inseminations.
In 2001 Hugo was again the most used Holstein-Friesian Premier Sire and he consolidated his burgeoning status with nearly 300,000 recorded inseminations to settle at a new lifetime tally of over 864,000.
International sales of Hugo semen have been realised on a truly global scale from Australia to the continents of Nth America / Sth America / Europe / Africa. Inclusion of his lifetime export sales of over 40,000 straws would lift his strike rate to over 900,000.
During the current New Zealand spring mating period, additional matings have seen SRD Collins Royal Hugo create a world record as the youngest artificial breeding sire in the world (7 years) to achieve 1 million inseminations. He is the third Livestock Improvement bull to achieve the 1 million milestone, SRD Dawsons Belvedere and Kingsmill PA Walesa, who set a world record – then – at 9 years of age.
When asked what has contributed to Hugo’s extraordinary performance, Livestock Improvement’s Breeding Manager, Allan McPherson said “his deeds have been founded upon a combination of several factors.
“Obviously he has been blessed with the genetic potential to sire profitable progeny. He has a current BW of 218 based on 16,828 daughters – up from the level of 199 that he finished on at the end of the 2001-02 season.
“He sires daughters with high milk solids components (4.6% Fat & 3.8% Protein), which despite only moderate milk volume, allows Hugo to be one of the few bulls to have breeding values in excess of 50kg for each of Fat & Protein.
“Hugo displays relatively little deviation from average in his traits other than production bv’s, transmits good Fertility and Total Longevity, functional udder & body conformation to daughters that are well liked by their owners.”
Allan McPherson said Hugo’s breeding is approximately 75% New Zealand in origin and he consistently attracts a lot of attention and demand making him ‘the King’ of the Livestock Improvement castle over several seasons.
“His unique contribution has only been possible because of Livestock Improvement’s world acclaimed Sire Proving Scheme, our leading edge liquid semen technology, distribution systems, 3-weekly genetic evaluations and the Forward Pack concept,” Allan McPherson said.
A full complement of 80 Hugo sons has already been assembled for Livestock Improvement’s Holstein-Friesian & KiwiCross™ Sire Proving Schemes, the first of these sons receiving their evaluations in the spring of 2004.
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